


A Date With Peter Pan

by Methoxyethane



Category: Kingdom Hearts
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Disney World & Disneyland, First Dates, First Meetings, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-05
Updated: 2019-02-05
Packaged: 2019-10-22 16:04:44
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,792
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17665721
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Methoxyethane/pseuds/Methoxyethane
Summary: Riku is ditched at Disneyland. Sora, being Peter Pan, feels it is his duty to spend as much of the day as it takes making Riku smile.





	A Date With Peter Pan

Sora had the best job in the whole world, and anyone who disagreed was a humbug Groucho. Sora knew this for a fact because he had met many such humbugs in said line of work, and was contractually obligated to cheer their lame butts up.

Sora, you see, worked at Disneyland. Yes, as in THAT Disneyland, as in the happiest place on Earth, filled with magic and laughter and candy and fireworks and overpriced gift store knick-knacks. And he didn’t even have some lame unimportant job like one of those gift shop employees, or some litter-sweep mop jockey (no offense to the several mop-jockeys he was indeed friends with). NOPE, Sora had the greatest, most MAGICAL job of all.

Sora got to play Peter Pan.

All day every day he got to run around playing with little kids, inspiring their imaginations and making them smile. And he was allowed to pick on the adults too, all in the name and spirit of Peter Pan the trickster prince.

And speaking of bothering adults, who was that he spotted out of the corner of his eye….

“Goodbye, Andy! Don’t pick on your sister unless you know you won’t get caught!” He called out to a tiny patron in a cowboy tee shirt as he ran off to rejoin his family.

“Bye Peter! Don’t let Tink pick on you too much, either!”

Sora glanced over at his Tinkerbell Namine, who was covering her giggle with one hand over her mouth. “Don’t worry, he can trust me,” she reassured at the exact same time she slipped behind his back to hold up her fingers in fake bunny ears.

The little boy let out one last laugh of his own as he and his family disappeared into the crowd, and Sora could turn his attention to the grumpy Gus sitting by himself on a bench and frowning into his phone.

Sora flitted over to the bench, hovering over the young man for a few moments to see if he’d be noticed. When he wasn’t he plopped himself down next to him, flopping to take up as much of the wooden seat as possible so he was sure to catch the other boy’s attention.

The guy shot Sora an annoyed glance, scowl ready before it turned into a double-take. “P-Peter Pan?!”

“‘Sup, bro.” Sora grinned at him. “So what about you? Kinda creepy that you know my name but I don’t know yours.”

Recovering from his surprise to look vaguely uncomfortable, the boy answered “Riku.” And wow, Gloomy Greg here had some absolutely stunning aqua green eyes, talk about handsome. Whoops, come on Sora, you’re on the clock here. Not allowed to be gay just ‘cause you found a cute guy.

“So Riku,” Sora asked, leaning forward and resting his jaw in his hands in a deliberately interested posture. “What’s got you frowning like a clown? You know this is Disneyland, right? The happiest place on Earth?”

Riku was frowning again, putting his phone in his pocket to fidget uncomfortably under Sora’s scrutiny. “I’m not - I just lost the friend I came here with. I’m trying to text him.”

Sora hummed. “So until you find him, you’re here all alone?”

More fidgeting, this time in the form of scratching the back of his neck. “I guess. So what?”

“I can’t leave you here alone and grumpy, is what!” Sora cried out, as far up into Riku’s personal space as he could squirm. “Looks like I have no choice but to keep you company myself.”

“You really don’t have to,” Riku insisted, but he defeated himself with the fact that he was still frowning. “To be honest, I’m pretty sure he only dragged me here to ditch me and flirt with the cotton candy vendor over in Imaginationland.”

Cottoncandy vendor? Huh, Sora was pretty sure that was where Roxas’s cotton candy stand was stationed. Wouldn’t THAT be funny. Either way, Sora had more urgent matters to attend to. “So he left you ALONE? In DISNEYLAND?” He exclaimed, making sure to sound as appalled as he kind of actually was. “Now I can’t leave you all by yourself!”

“I think you kind of have to,” Riku said with something like a sympathetic smile, standing up. “I doubt Axel’s gonna text me back, so I’m pretty much on my own for the rest of the day. I’m sure Peter Pan has better things to do than just hang out with me.”

Sora hopped up too, filled with determination. “And that’s where you’re wrong! My job is to make sure our customers are happy. So that means,” He waved at Namine, signaling her to cover for him for him in Neverland. “I have full permission to pour my entire attention onto you until you, too, have had a magical freakin’ day.”

It wasn’t a real swear word but it was just close enough to make Riku blink and snort out a startled laugh. “You can’t be serious.”

Sora grinned. “Just WATCH me!”

Unlike the larger DisneyWorld, the actors didn’t have handlers or schedules and could pretty much wander around doing whatever they wanted if it was still in they name of pleasing customers. Granted Sora was sort of supposed to take Namine with him, but uh… Yeah this guy was like SUPER hot, Sora was gonna take a half hour to play with him. Totally professionally, of course.

“Obviously the first thing we have to try is ice cream,” Sora declared, already dragging Riku away with a hand wrapped around his wrist. “If I can’t get a smile out of you with ice cream shaped like Mickey Mouse, then I can’t get a smile out for anything.”

Riku looked like he couldn’t decide if he wanted to argue or give up and smile already, one eyebrow raised in something Sora could only identify as indulgent confusion. The indulgence meant he went with anyway though, following without even trying to pull his hand back and picking out a sweet yellow paopu flavor when they got to Kristoff’s stand.

Sora watched Riku take his first bite, his own sea-salt practically melting in his hand as it went unattended for his attention to Riku. It was just really important to Sora that he enjoy this, okay? Also, he was like handsome as hell and Sora liked watching his eyes, and just like he thought when Riku tried his first taste of ice cream they totally lit up and sparkled and gosh, Sora loved watching the way those eyes shined. On, on anyone he meant, not just this random hot guy he met at work.

“You’re right,” Riku conceded, a smile indeed curling the corner of his lips as he licked a bit of ice cream away. “This is probably the best ice cream I’ve ever tasted. And I never even liked ice cream before now.”

Technically speaking, Sora had completed his duties and could probably leave Riku alone now. But he didn’t want to even in the least bit, and luckily he had the excuse that Riku had been ditched and would still have no one to talk to or enjoy the park with if Sora left.

“Don’t eat too fast,” Sora told him with a sly smile. “Don’t wanna puke it up when we go on the rides.”

Riku blinked at him, and Sora enjoyed the apprehension he saw. Good. Everyone should be just a tiny bit afraid of hanging out with Peter Pan for the day.

Sora’s favorite place in the whole park was New Orleans, because that was where the pirates were. He was usually stuck in Magic Kingdom all day but any excuse to wander over and take a ride on Pirates of the Caribbean for a loop he’d take, and everyone always laughed when he hollered and whooped at the pirates in the ride as Peter Pan.

It took ages to actually GET there, but luckily it didn’t look like Riku minded how often people stopped them for pictures. Which was good, because it was literally the main part of his entire job so if he HAD minded Sora would probably have had to stop hanging out with him, which would have totally sucked. But he played along and stepped out of the way, sometimes even held the camera for the patrons who wanted Sora’s picture and even better pretending to be a pirate or an over-tall lost boy for any kids who asked who he was and why he was hanging out with Peter Pan.

Since it took so long to actually get anywhere, they ended up with plenty of time to talk. Sora had to stay in character with so many people around which kind of sucked, he wanted to be able to get to know Riku on like, a personal level, but. At least he could ask questions about him, even if he wasn’t allowed to share anything real back. He could still give hints, and even more as long as Sora just generally acted like himself, that was the same as really getting to know each other, right? Sora was Sora no matter what he was wearing; that’s why he was so good at his job.

He still wanted to give Riku more, though. That was probably why, in the dark of the Pirate of the Caribbean ride as they sat down in their boat, Sora leaned over to whisper his real name into Riku’s ear.

“Sora,” Riku repeated quietly, and Sora watched the way his lips curved around the name before turning into subtle, private little smile. “Thanks.”

Thankfully it was dark and the ride was starting, so no one would notice if Sora took a moment to calm his heartbeat without anyone noticing the bright red flush to his cheeks.

Refusing to acknowledge that continuing this was a bad idea, Sora wasn’t ready for them to part ways after the ride. He’d gotten Riku to smile and the next step was probably to find this friend who he had come with and guilt him into reuniting, but instead he just took him back to Magic Kingdom to take a ride on the teacups, stopping first for a photo at Snow White’s Wishing Well.

(He had been there before, but never bothered to throw a coin in. Today was the first time since he worked here he stopped to make a wish.)

On the way to the teacups the two of them ended up passing by Bambi's flower garden, which turned out to be Sora’s favorite part of the day so far. He had never given much thought to the little sculpture of Bambi made out of flowers, but Riku was a whole different matter. Riku saw it, lost his breath, and loved it so much Sora swore to god he saw actual tears in his eyes.

“It’s Bambi,” Riku tried to explain to Sora’s smothered giggles. “Bambi! Stop making fun of me, this is very emotional.”

“I’m not making fun, I promise! I love it, you’re the cutest person I’ve ever met,” Sora told him with an honest smile.

“Shut up,” Riku denied, pale face turning red with ease. “You’re so much cuter, have you even seen your own face? You have eyes bigger than Bambi, check right now and tell me I’m wrong.”

Sora could feel his smile crack his face, which felt so burning hot he couldn’t imagine how red it was. His laugh spread to Riku in moments, and not knowing what else to do with his embarrassment, Sora grabbe Riku’s hand again and dragged him off to where the tea cup rides were, set up in perfect view of the Castle itself. Sora tried to pretend the setting wasn’t romantic, but it never did help his heartbeat go down.

And then the two of them actually got into one of those steel bastard-bowls and all thoughts of romance flew out of the teacup via centrifugal force as they started spinning.

Sora recognized instantly the ruthless gleam in Riku's eyes, both hands gripping the center wheel with a wicked smirk. Sora had no choice but to try and try and fight back, but Riku's handle was better as their teacup spun faster and faster around the little course and he lost his grip to give up and spin out into dizzying too-fast loops.

On the plus side, as they stumbled out of the ride to fall onto nearby grass, at least it was obvious Riku had made BOTH of them sick and not just Sora. And then Sora got to his feet first without throwing up, which meant he won anyway.

Competitive spirit fully ignited, Sora vowed revenge. It was already late into the afternoon, but there was still time left before anyone would start to seriously notice he wasn’t where he was supposed to be. He knew exactly what to do.

Getting all the way back over to where the Haunted Mansion was took time and energy same as last time ‘cause of how popular he was, but they more than made up for it by Sora’s ability to skip completely through lines to get right onto the ride, because no one was gonna call cut-sies on Peter Pan.

Riku, as he rightly should have, looked downright nervous as he stared up at a hundred and thirty feet of solid metal imagineering. He got on anyway, possibly because Sora started clucking at him in a very mature manner becoming of an eighteen year old adult like him.

Sora loved this ride. He loved heights and adrenaline-fueled nightmare rides like this, loved roller coasters and hundred and thirty foot drops and anything that made you feel like if you believed it hard enough you really could be flying. He kept his eyes open the whole time, watched every second of the slow lift up and up and up the tower, kept them open for the agonizing seconds of waiting, kept them open for the sudden drop.

He didn’t need to have them open to hear Riku’s scream, as it turned out. And Riku didn’t need to pry his eyes open in order to hear Sora’s delighted squeals of laughter the whole way down.

When they got off, Sora honestly felt a little bad about the entire thing. Riku said it had been fun, but he also hadn’t stopped shaking for about five minutes since they’d hobbled off the ride, just the slightest tremor as they’d left New Orleans Square to wander back to where Sora actually belonged (and maybe apologize to Namine.) So Sora did the natural thing to do in this situation, and grabbed Riku’s hand one more time. Not to drag him off anywhere, but just to have their hands laced together and their fingers entwined for the long walk back.

“Let’s make one more stop,” Riku suggested, pulling them towards Disney Castle herself. “I’ve never actually seen inside the castle before.”

And how was Sora supposed to deny him one request, when it had been him hauling Riku around for an entire afternoon so far? He couldn’t, that’s how. So into the castle they went.

There wasn’t much on the lower floors besides another gift shop, which they passed by. And the higher floors in the tower were only filled with murals, stained glass depictions of Sleeping Beauty’s story waiting the walls as they wandered up the staircase.

Sora was keenly aware of his hand still in Riku’s, realizing that here in the narrow space of the castle’s upper floors they were finally out of sight from the multitudes of crowds he was so used to being surrounded by. He and Riku were alone, and holding hands, and Sora’s heartbeat was suddenly louder than his footsteps as all he could think about was Riku, and him, and him and Riku ALONE.

Whether or not he had meant to stop at this exact mural Sora didn’t know, but they paused at a scene of Prince Phillip leaning down to kiss Aurora in her bed. Neither of them were facing it to actually know if Riku noticed they’d stopped here at all, because instead he was facing Sora, hand still holding his as their bodies stood close enough to feel each other’s heat.

So much heat. Sora was warm all over, head tilted back as he finally noticed just how tall Riku really was. So tall. And with broad shoulders and warm pleasant hands and a handsome face with the world’s most gorgeous eyes staring down right into Sora’s, inching down closer to lean over him and…

It wasn’t technically Sora’s first kiss, but it felt like it should have been. His heart seized up and everything was all warm and soft and fireworks all at once, and he felt his everything heat up and his body rise up on his toes to try and meet Riku hallway into the kiss. He never wanted it to end.

Which is probably why it went on way longer than it should have. Like, WAY longer. As in, what started out as a nice gentle little innocent kiss turned into open-mouthed making out for… at LEAST several minutes, Sora wasn’t sure, he just knew it felt awesome and went on until the sound of footsteps coming up behind them forced them to stop and let the other tourists on through.

They left the castle red-faced and still holding hands, and with Sora paranoid that every single person who looked at him could tell exactly what they had just done. Which would be bad since he could probably be fired, but was also pretty unlikely seeing as everyone was still like, treating him totally normally. He was too self-conscious. And still holding Riku’s hand for some reason, even though it was a bad idea.

“RIKU! You son of a bitch, I’ve been looking for you for over an hour!”

“I’ve been gone for three, what were you doing for the other two?” Riku shouted back to the redhead waving at them, not bothering to hasten his walking speed to reach his approaching friend.

Ah crap, this would obviously be the person Riku had lost when he got here. Looks like Sora had to give him back now.

Sora started to draw back, pulling his hand away from Riku’s grasp in preparation to say goodbye. When he felt Sora pull away Riku looked back at him in panic, grabbing at Sora’s hand again to shout, “W-wait! I don’t… Can I get your number?”

“You already have it,” Sora grinned back, pulling his hand away once more with a final squeeze to Riku’s. “When someone asked for an autograph earlier and I used your arm to test the pen, I was actually just writing my phone number.”

Riku blinked at him, then down at his arm, flailing around to try and get a look at the scribbles on the outside of his left bicep. The massive redhead had reached them just about then leaving Sora the perfect opportunity to slip away, shouting back one last “Call me!” At a startled Riku as he disappeared into the crowd.

When he finally found Namine again, she wasn’t mad that he’d left her by herself all day, but only because she was an angel too good for this world. That didn’t stop her from making fun of him fo running off with a handsome stranger all day, though.

—

When Axel suggested to Riku that they spend their free Saturday shelling out the frankly exorbitant fees to get into Disneyland, he thought the other boy was joking. And then Axel offered to help pay, and Riku figured an hour’s drive down to Anaheim was worth it. He hadn’t been to Disneyland since he was about fourteen, and going now that he’d become an adult sounded like it could be a whole different kind of fun.

That was his bad for forgetting who, exactly, he was friends with. Axel was a good person and a great friend, but he could be ruthlessly obsessive, especially when it came to someone he liked. Riku had no idea who this cotton candy vendor was or how Axel knew where to find him, but when the redhead insisted on running through the line three times when neither of them actually liked sweets Riku knew he was fucked.

And that of course, was when Peter Pan showed up. 

Peter Pan being the cutest guy Riku had ever laid eyes on, with huge blue eyes and a smile like the radiating freaking  _ sun _ . He was adorable and funny and kind of stupid and told Riku his real name and he wanted to keep him forever. He’d never even liked that movie as a kid, but now Riku absolutely NEEDED Peter Pan to be his boyfriend. And by Peter Pan he meant the actor Sora with the face like a Greek twink god and the laugh like fresh cookies and puppy dogs. 

“So what the hell, man,” He asked Axel as they left the park, getting out at sunset just before the fireworks were ready to start. “Why did we come all the way to Anaheim just for you to hit on a random ice cream vendor all day? This cost so much money you dumb dickhead. There are ice cream vendors everywhere.”

Red hair shook as Axel flailed, trying to communicate something grand with his gestures. “This wasn’t some random vendor dude, this was ROXAS! I’ve been looking for this guy for like, two entire years since we graduated high school! His just disappeared and now I finally got his phone number!”

“Then why’d you need to drag me along?”

Axel shrugged. “Well I couldn’t come here alone, that’d just make me look pathetic.”

“Like you made ME look when you ditched me?!” Riku kicked at his leg. 

His friend just laughed, even as he stumbled over the strike to his calf. “Sorry man, but I had no choice! This was Roxas!  _ Roxas _ !”

“I don’t know who that is or what that means!”

“It means I got a date with someone like ten times cuter and greater than anyone who’s ever SPOKEN to you before, loser!”

Riku paused, forcing them to stop halfway into the empty parking lot. 

“I made out with Peter Pan today.”

Axel stared. “You did fucking not.”

Letting the grin slowly spread across his face so smug the Cheshire Cat himself would be proud, Riku held up his left arm to point at the phone number scrawled in large, goofy handwriting on his skin. 

“You son of a bitch,” Axel sighed, shaking his head. “THREE HOURS! I left you alone for three hours and you make out with a Disney prince!”

Not a prince, Riku smiled to himself. He’d made out with  _ Sora _ .


End file.
